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A former Fairfield County resident who is a citizen of the Republic of Georgia is going to spend six months behind bars after being sentenced in federal court to operating an “extensive” immigration fraud scheme.

United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut John Durham announced that 53-year-old David Nikolahvili, who was residing in Queens, has been sentenced to six months in prison and two years of post supervised released after pleading guilty to one count of making a false swearing in an immigration matter in July last year. Nikolahvili must also pay a $12,000 fine.

Durham said that Nikolahvili, who formerly resided in Stamford, Conn., operated an immigration fraud scheme through which he attempted to obtain false immigration status from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for no less than 60 citizens of European countries.

As part of the scheme, Durham said that Nikolahvili received between $12,000 and $20,000 per illegal immigrant after arranging “sham marriages between the aliens and United States citizens in order to obtain immigration benefits for the aliens.” The American citizens were then paid to enter the “sham” marriages.

Nikolahvili was arrested on June 21, 2016. He pleaded guilty on July 26 the following year. He remains released on $75,000 bond, and has been ordered to report to prison on April 27. He will face immigration proceedings when he is released from prison.